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Managing evaporation for more robust microscale assays. Part 1. Volume loss in high throughput assays.

ABSTRACT: Evaporation is a well known issue when handling small liquid volumes. Here we present a review of microscale assays prone to evaporation and methods to make them more robust. Applications for these assays span from combinatorial chemistry to cell-biology where the stability of concentrations and osmolarity can be critical. A dimensionless evaporation number Ev is presented and used to characterize volume loss in short term and long term microscale assays. Ev can be used both as a design tool and as an analysis parameter. The advantageous use of evaporation in some applications is also discussed.

SUBMITTER: Berthier E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2453240 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Managing evaporation for more robust microscale assays. Part 1. Volume loss in high throughput assays.

Berthier Erwin E Warrick Jay J Yu Hongmeiy H Beebe David J DJ

Lab on a chip 20080408 6

Evaporation is a well known issue when handling small liquid volumes. Here we present a review of microscale assays prone to evaporation and methods to make them more robust. Applications for these assays span from combinatorial chemistry to cell-biology where the stability of concentrations and osmolarity can be critical. A dimensionless evaporation number Ev is presented and used to characterize volume loss in short term and long term microscale assays. Ev can be used both as a design tool and ...[more]

PMID: 18497901

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